At Last, Ivanisevic Catches Up to Wimbledon Destiny

LONDON— Destiny? Who believes in destiny anymore? But as the aces and the victories started to pile up during the last two weeks at Wimbledon, Goran Ivanisevic, for one and for once, certainly began to believe that it was finally meant to be.

Three previous trips to the Wimbledon final left him holding the wrong piece of silverware and harboring nothing but regrets. But the year when nobody took him seriously was his year to change his luck and his reputation.

No more labeling him "the best player never to win a Grand Slam event." No more considering him too volatile, too old, too weak in the shoulder and the knees to strut off the most famous court in tennis as a worthy champion.

Yet for a wild card with destiny in his corner, Ivanisevic suddenly looked like he had serious doubts when he finally got the chance to serve for the title on Monday. He and Patrick Rafter had been swatting serves and punching volleys for five sets and nearly three hours in a rollicking atmosphere that bore a much greater resemblance to a Davis Cup final than a Wimbledon final with its waving flags and competing chants of "Go-ran," "Raf-ter," "Go-ran," "Raf-ter."

The 29-year-old Ivanisevic had lost his temper after losing his serve and edge in the fourth set, hurling his racket, kicking the net and cursing at the chair umpire, Jorge Dias, after disagreeing with a line call. But he had put the pieces back together quickly for the marathon fifth, avoiding any break points on his own massive serve and finally cracking Rafter's in the 15th game to go up, 8-7, when Rafter lost his touch on his first serve.

As the Croatian walked back on court after the changeover, he made the sign of the cross on his chest, looked up to the ominously dark sky and prayed. After his 27th and final ace gave him his first championship point at 40-30, he asked for the same ball back, cradled it in both hands like a cherished infant, pulled up his socks, wiped a tear or two away and proceeded to serve a double fault.

Two points later, he looked more composed on his next match point, but the result was the same. Double fault again. Two points later, Rafter came up with a brave backhand lob winner to put the celebration on ice again.

Three match points gone in his fourth and probably last final. Could tennis be this cruel? Could Ivanisevic really come this far against the odds and logic and lose his grip once more?

"I say, 'No, no, no. This is not true,' " Ivanisevic said of his thoughts after the third match point.

Thankfully for those who like their truth stranger than fiction, there would be another chance. A backhand return in the net from Rafter gave him match point number four, and this time, Ivanisevic was determined to get a serve, any serve, in the court. So what if it was an unexceptional second one? Rafter struck another backhand return into the net, and Ivanisevic twisted and fell to the ground: his goateed face planted in the grass, his sweaty shoulders heaving and his quest complete after a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 victory that everyone but Rafter and his hardcore Australian fans will be reflecting on fondly on for many Wimbledons to come.

"I don't know if it's a dream or not," Ivanisevic said. "I don't know if I'm going to wake up and somebody is going to tell me I didn't win Wimbledon again."

Nobody will, unless they have a cruel sense of humor, but watching Ivanisevic after his victory; watching him climb into the stands to embrace his father, Srdjan, and then step onto the roof of a television box and thrust his long arms into the air, it looked like it might have been worth the wait.

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He played his first match at Wimbledon in 1988, losing in the first round at age 16. He reached the semifinals two years later, serving big and chasing after pigeons on court during his loss to Boris Becker. At that stage, despite his tendency to let his fantastical mind wander, it seemed simply a matter of time.

But in 1992, when he was favored to beat the then emotionally shaky baseliner Andre Agassi in the final, he lost in five sets. By 1994, when he reached the final for the second time, Pete Sampras had become an extraordinarily difficult man to beat at the All England Club. Ivanisevic lost in straight sets then. He lost again in five sets in 1998.

"After the third one, he was absolutely devastated," said Srdjan Ivanisevic, whose serious heart problems have caused doctors to recommend he not watch his son's matches.

He is not the first Ivanisevic to have health problems. When Goran began playing, his prize money helped pay for medical treatment for his older sister Srdjana, who had Hodgkin's disease that has since gone into remission.

The next cause of his career was Croatia, which declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, helping to spark a long conflict. Ivanisevic carried the flag for Croatia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and as a Croatian symbol, he was also a target. For several years, he had a guard placed in front of his hotel room door in London. He registered under assumed names and received death threats.

The war eventually ended, and Ivanisevic was left without a cause and with chronic pain and stiffness in his left shoulder. Once ranked No. 2 in the world, he dropped to 96 in the points race at the end of last year and tried unsuccessfully to play in the Australian Open, losing in the first round of qualifying after flying all the way to Melbourne.

"That was the low point," he said.

Low enough to increase the public pressure on him at home to retire, but Ivanisevic continued, skipping the clay-court season altogether to preserve his shoulder and avoiding the qualifying at Wimbledon despite his poor ranking because All England Club officials agreed to his request for a wild card.

He is now the first wild card in men's tennis history to win a Grand Slam event: a victory he dedicated to Drazen Petrovic, the former Croatian and NBA basketball star who died in a car crash in 1993. Ivanisevic has mellowed and matured, but he is hardly the paragon of discretion and tact.

He called the lineswoman who called him for a footfault in that pivotal fourth-set service game "ugly" and used a much more offensive term for the linesman who called his second serve wide in that same game. He wants to add a "Wimbledon 2001" tattoo to the one of a shark and a cross that he has on his back.

"I was always second," Ivanisevic said. "People respect me but second place is not good enough and finally I am a champion of Wimbledon. I won. and now this is everything for me. My dreams came true. Whatever I do in my life, wherever I go, I will always be Wimbledon champion."

The last time a man became Wimbledon champion on a Monday was in 1988, when Stefan Edberg finished off Becker. After rain forced Ivanisevic's semifinal victory over Britain's Tim Henman to be contested over three days, the tournament organizers decided to sell 10,000 tickets to Monday's final on a first-come, first-served basis instead of allowing Sunday's ticket holders a bonus. The effect was a bit like the proletariat invading this Summer Palace. Instead of crisply pressed suits and decorous behavior, the Center Court was awash in colorful wigs, huge and often humorous banners ("Goran Show Us Your Tattoo"), inflatable kangaroos and a lot more Australian than Croatian flags thanks to London's large Australian expatriate community.

"The atmosphere was fantastic; this is what we play tennis for," Rafter said. But Rafter, who lost in his first Wimbledon final last year when Sampras won his record 13th Grand Slam singles title, know they also play for major titles. "I'm sick of making bloody history," he said, forcing a smile.